16 Wing Date Raised : 1963-04-07 Location : Hashimara Air Force Station Hashimara is located in West Bengal, close to the Buxa Tiger Reserve and the Jaldapara Sanctuary. It provides air defence cover over a narrow land corridor stretching from Bangladesh to Nepal and Bhutan. The air power from this base can be projected over entire Bangladesh and some major Chinese airfields in Tibet Autonomous Region. Hasimara wasn't always an air force base. It started as a private air strip used by Dakota aircraft of Jam Air and Kalinga Air. After the 1962 Sino Indian war, Air Force Station Hasimara was set up on April 7, 1963. The pioneers of the Station literally lived in jungles and virtually shared space with wild animals. In those days, a single metre gauge railway line was the only link between Hasimara and rest of the country. Road links were non-existent. By September 1963, the base had two squadrons of Toofani aircraft. In January 1964, a helicopter Units with Mi-4 helicopters also moved into Hasimara. By the mid 1970s the base came to be called the House of Hunters' hosting three squadrons of Hunter aircraft. During the decade, MiG-21 fighters also operated from the base for five years. The MiGs were back for another stint at the base between 1985 to 1987.
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Commanding Officers | |||||
07 Apr 63 - 06 Apr 65Wing CommanderDouglas George King-Lee3040 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 05 Apr 65 - 01 Aug 65Wing CommanderShamrao Ramrao Powar3100 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 01 Aug 65 - 31 Jul 66Group CaptainAnthony Ignatius Kenneth Suares2773 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 01 Aug 66 - 13 May 69Group CaptainLakshman Madhav Katre3117 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 14 May 69 - 04 Jun 71Group CaptainWilliam Macdonald Goodman3571 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | |
02 Feb 73 - 14 Nov 74Group CaptainHarendra Narain Bysak3857 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 02 Dec 74 - 25 May 76Group CaptainDenzil Edward Satur4339 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 26 May 76 - 04 Sep 77Group CaptainKanwal Krishan Malik4335 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 05 Sep 77 - 20 Oct 80Group CaptainTrilochan Singh5043 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | 21 Oct 80 - 22 Jun 82Group CaptainMadhabendra Banerji4898 GD(P)Stn CdrHashimara | |
23 Jun 82 - 23 Dec 83Air CommodoreMadhabendra Banerji4898 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 24 Dec 83 - 18 Aug 85Air CommodoreAmrit Mohan Mehta5051 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 19 Aug 85 - 28 Sep 87Air CommodoreRanbir Singh Rana5106 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 29 Sep 87 - 21 Apr 90Air CommodoreAjai Kumar Brahmawar5858 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 22 Apr 90 - 05 Apr 92Air CommodoreSyed Shahid Hussain Naqvi7193 GD(P)AOCHashimara | |
06 Apr 92 - 07 Jan 94Air CommodoreManek Bomanshaw Madon7681 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 08 Jan 94 - 07 Jan 96Air CommodoreManpreet Singh Brar8715 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 08 Jan 96 - 30 Dec 96Air CommodoreSubhash Chandra Rastogi8999 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 03 Feb 97 - 30 May 99Air CommodoreJagdish Singh Grewal10866 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 31 May 99 - 20 Dec 00Air CommodoreAshok Dharam Chhibbar12118 GD(P)AOCHashimara | |
04 Jan 01 - 18 Mar 02Air CommodorePramod Kumar Mehra11581 GD(P)AOCHashimara | 19 Mar 02 - 26 Jan 04Air CommodoreKrishan Kumar Nohwar13132 F(P)AOCHashimara | 27 Jan 04 - 01 Jan 06Air CommodoreVirender Nath Kalia13568 F(P)AOCHashimara | 02 Jan 06 - 01 Jul 07Air CommodoreRajesh Rao Pandurangi13811 F(P)AOCHashimara | 02 Jul 07 - 24 May 09Air CommodoreRavinath Gururaj Burli14667 F(P)AOCHashimara | |
25 May 09 - 26 Sep 10Air CommodoreRakesh Marwaha15865 F(P)AOCHashimara | 27 Sep 10 - 27 Dec 12Air CommodoreTejinder Pal Singh16781 F(P)AOCHashimara | | 29 Dec 14 - 10 Jul 17Air CommodoreViswajit Vasudev Dedgaonkar18813 F(P)AOCHashimara | 11 Jul 17 - Air CommodoreJasvir Singh Mann20491 F(P)AOCHashimara | |